"Kiss Gentaro."

"Okay!"

Wait a minute… What?

Gentaro barely reacted when Dice started to lean closer. He remembered the context. Ramuda's apartment. 23:56 PM. Fling Posse's reunion. They were all a little drunk and… Oh well, Dice had been wanting to bet all night. The moment Ramuda relented, the problems began.

They'd started with a simple game of strip poker, in which Dice had ended up completely naked and with a drawing, made by Ramuda, on his left buttock. As soon as he'd gotten dressed, they'd followed with a round of tequila shots. Whoever had finished the round with the joker had to drink their corresponding shot, in one single motion. It was thus that they begun to get drunk, although Gentaro was quite sure that Ramuda was not drunk at all. What's more, he could've bet all the money he had in his pockets that the leader of Fling Posse was up to something.

When the dares began, he knew what it was about.

Gentaro saw Dice approaching, on all fours and with an ambitious expression on his face. Sure, Ramuda had just promised Dice a generous amount of money if he kissed him. He was not going to pass up the opportunity.

"What is this?" The writer inquired, addressing their leader exclusively. For the moment, he preferred to avoid Dice's gaze.

"Eh? Why do you ask? It's just a bet," Ramuda replied with apparent innocence. Smiling. smiling at him.

Asshole.

Gentaro didn't want to look defensive. Not in front of Ramuda. Not in front of the one who could read his feelings with relative ease.

He knows. Shit. He knows.

"This doesn't sound like a fair deal to me," Gentaro interjected, as he stopped Dice's advances with what little strength he had left. "If he kisses me, he'll win his bet with you, but even though I'm involved I won't win anything if I let him."

"Mmh? What's up Gentaro? Don't you want to kiss Dice?"

"C'mon! I'm not so ba-…" Dice was interrupted by the writer's hand, which strategically landed on Dice's jaw and pressed his cheeks together. Dice's lips were pursed in a way that made any word he tried to say sound incomprehensible. "Asdkjfkds!"

"The truth is that… I've never…" confessed Gentaro, feigning a long-suffering and dramatic tone, as if he were playing as the protagonist of a lurid drama.

"No lies!" Ramuda objected. "How do you expect us to believe that Yumeno-sensei has never kissed anyone? It's not common for you to lie so badly. Nerves are betraying you."

"No way. I can't wait to kiss Dice," he replied, now in his usual tone. He could feel Dice's nerves fraying at this comment, and the babbling continued, his muffled voice slightly overlapping Gentaro's words as he spoke, "But, you know, it would be unfair for you to leave me out if you're betting with something that involves me. How about you tell me about your past with Jinguji in return?"

For a nearly imperceptible moment, Ramuda's frown gave him away. Gentaro smirked at him. He hoped that would break the bet. He didn't want to kiss Dice. Not like this.

"Well, if that's stimulating for you, go ahead," the Fling Posse leader agreed, fixing his blu gaze on the writer's emerald one. "But if you want to play too, Gentaro, we're going to up the ante."

This single condition was enough to make the writer's smirk disappear. Dice continued fighting against Gentaro's grip to consummate the agreed upon wager, without paying much attention to the conversation of his teammates.

Ramuda jumped up from the floor to look down on Dice and Gentaro, who were standing dangerously close to each other. Just as the novelist guessed, he didn't look the least bit drunk.

"I want you to kiss Dice with aaaaaaaall your love, okay?" Ramuda said, not abandoning his usual boyish tone. "You'll do it until Dice feels really good, really good. You know what I mean by that, right?"

To Ramuda's satisfaction, Gentaro's usually impenetrable expression fell apart. He didn't know if it was because of the alcohol or the situation, but lying was a lot harder than usual. He felt exposed, vulnerable. And it was clear that Gentaro did not like that at all.

"Ra-Ramuda… We're not supposed to be playing 'that' kind of stuff…" he told him, trying to stay calm.

"Why not?" Ramuda wanted to know, leaning towards his dear friend. His smile did nothing but send shivers down Gentaro's spine, a feeling made worse by hearing Ramuda deepen his voice until it became just a soft whisper near his ear. "If you want to talk about adult matters, you'll have to play like the adults."

His mistake in mentioning Jinguji was the only thing on Gentaro's mind as he let go of Dice's face, resignedly allowing him to reach Gentaro's mouth.

The gambler was less aggressive than he expected. He took Gentaro's chin with one hand, to prevent him from escaping ,and kissed his lips slowly and deliberately, allowing him to detect the scent of tobacco and feel Dice's chapped mouth against his own. Gentaro couldn't help but tense as he responded to the kiss with the same cadence, not wanting to look anxious. He hoped Dice didn't notice the pounding of his heart and attributed the deep blush on his cheeks to a reaction to the alcohol.

He had to resist.

"Good boy, Dice! Keep it up~!" Ramuda sang, still very close to them.

The writer watched him out of the corner of his eye, restless, meeting his leader's sharp gaze studying each of his gestures. He was smiling like he was watching a hilarious TV show. Dice didn't even flinch and continued with the game.

After a minute, Ramuda got up to find some alcohol on the coffee table, giving them room. He drank a dangerous amount of tequila straight from the bottle and sat on the other side of the room, watching every detail of the scene starring his division mates from there.

Gentaro frowned.

The asshole is enjoying it.

And, despite the obvious discomfort of knowing he was being watched, Dice's lips kept stealing Gentaro's attention and every one of his senses.

It was easy for him to see that the gambler had experience. Dice kissed him with complete control, well aware that this was a bet and nothing more, a reality that became more and more painful and present for Gentaro as the kiss continued. When he decided to close his eyes to capture the moment on his skin, a question escaped his thoughts before he could help it: How many mouths have you kissed for this very reason?

Secretly irritated, Gentaro bit Dice's lower lip, and Dice pulled back to let out a delicious moan.

Let's get this over with this.

Still with the gambler an inch away, Gentaro averted his face, avoiding a new start and hiding a hard look behind his curly bangs. He was clearly on the defensive. Even Ramuda's smile disappeared for a moment, watching with great his outburst of sincerity.

"Shit…" A raspy whisper escaped Dice's throat, so soft that only Gentaro was able to hear it.

The liar turned his face, not understanding the cause of the swearing. To his bewilderment, the most reckless gambler in all of Shibuya crawled towards him again with a feral expression that Gentaro couldn't interpret, seeking his mouth without asking for any kind of consent. Instead of backing away completely and ending the game, Dice trapped him with both arms and used part of his weight to hold him there, in the middle of Ramuda's living room, with the aforementioned present and watching all his moves.

Gentaro didn't react. He was suddenly locked in an intense kiss, one he would remember from the frantic pace, the entwined tongues, and the clashing teeth. A very different kiss from the previous one.

"You really get along, guys," Ramuda commented from his spectator seat, intentionally irritating the writer with his presence.

This wasn't Gentaro's first kiss, but the level of physical and emotional exposure made him feel like it was. And it was not only about being vulnerable in front of Ramuda, but also in front of Dice himself, because even when his kisses were due to the promised loot, it was not necessary to be a great observer to notice the way the writer's body responded to Dice's actions from the beginning.

With every breath he took, Gentaro felt hungrier, more needy, as if a fire was burning every inch of him. His cheeks burned, while a wave of heat expanded from the pit of his stomach to his crotch, which was in danger of reacting much earlier than he'd predicted.

And then, something happened that Gentaro didn't see coming: Dice lunged forward in such a way that Gentaro's back hit the floor of the apartment, deepening the kiss with sudden fierceness.

Does he want that damn money this bad?

The confusion and the alcohol in his blood didn't let him think straight, and although pleasure threatened to add to the equation, the bewilderment was such that it was far from meeting Ramuda's expectations.

Suddenly, Dice stopped.

The magenta eyes, previously hidden under their lids, were revealed slowly and deliberately. Gentaro recognized a different glow in them, a new intent. And only then he could contemplate the flushed cheeks, the red and moist lips, and that latent emotion in the ragged breath. Dice looked scared, as if his simple logic wasn't enough to explain what he was doing.

"Gentaro…" he whispered uneasily. Dice's expression was something never seen before and seemed to hide unknown, strong sensations that dominated him. As unusual and surprising as it was, the writer could guess that the bet was the last of his interests.

Ramuda should not see him like this.

"What's up, Dice?" The division's leader spoke from the other side of the table, puzzled. The angle only allowed him to see the aforementioned from behind.

Gentaro got up slightly and, from his position, moved forward to bring his right hand to the back of Dice's neck. He pulled him close enough to offer his shoulder to support his face, thus hiding his confused expression from Ramuda's questioning gaze. Dice, red up to his ears, let Gentaro do as he pleased.

"I guess we'll have to leave the story of Jinguji for another time," the writer announced, giving his leader a look that was as defensive as it was knowing.

Ramuda suppressed a laugh. He didn't look surprised at all.

"Sure!" He accepted bluntly, filled with inexplicable joy. "I think I'm going to stay at one of my onee-sans' today. I leave you in charge of everything, okay? Don't break anything~!"

And after this brief goodbye, he disappeared from his own apartment with a grin from ear to ear. Gentaro wondered what he would do without a change of clothes or his toiletries, but then he remembered that Ramuda used to bed most of his models. They would have everything they needed to receive Ramuda between their sheets.

Anyway, what did it matter? Gentaro's hand still rested on Dice's neck, and the tremors in his embarrassed body predicted a long night.